Grid lines are drawn at every 15 degrees of declination, and every hour (= 15 degrees at the equator) of right ascension.

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1 These sky maps were made using the freeware UNIX program "starchart", from Alan Paeth and Craig Counterman, with some postprocessing by Stuart Levy. You re free to use them however you wish. There are five equatorial maps: three covering the equatorial strip from declination 60 to +60 degrees, corresponding roughly to the evening sky in northern winter (eq1), spring (eq2), and summer/autumn (eq3), plus maps covering the north and south polar areas to declination about +/ 25 degrees. Grid lines are drawn at every 15 degrees of declination, and every hour (= 15 degrees at the equator) of right ascension. The equatorial strip maps use a simple rectangular projection; this shows constellations near the equator with their true shape, but those at declination +/ 30 degrees are stretched horizontally by about 15%, and those at the extreme 60 degree edge are plotted twice as wide as you ll see them on the sky. The sinusoidal curve spanning the equatorial strip is, of course, the Ecliptic the path of the Sun (and approximately that of the planets) through the sky. The polar maps are plotted with stereographic projection. This preserves shapes of small constellations, but enlarges them as they get farther from the pole; at declination 45 degrees they re about 17% oversized, and at the extreme 25 degree edge about 40% too large. These charts plot stars down to magnitude 5, along with a few of the brighter deep sky objects mostly star clusters and nebulae. Many stars are labelled with their Bayer Greek letter names. Also here are similarly plotted maps, based on galactic coordinates. The midline of the strip maps is the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. Unlike the ecliptic, which matters only within our solar system, the Milky Way plane would be important to observers on any of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy. It s also important to Earth based observers, as the Milky Way s structure determines where in the sky we can find various types of deep sky objects: for example, open star clusters, and "planetary" and gaseous nebulae are concentrated toward the galactic plane; globular star clusters appear all over the sky, with more of them toward the galactic center; and Milky Way dust, concentrated in the galactic plane, obscures distant objects in and beyond the plane, so most external galaxies appear well above or below the Milky Way plane. If you have any questions about the maps, or would like the tools I used so you can make others of your own, contact me: Stuart Levy, slevy@ncsa.uiuc.edu January, 2002

2 Pollux LYNX M44 M67 CANCER M81/82 URSA MAJOR LEO MINOR Regulus LEO URSA MINOR M66/65 SEXTANS M101 M51 M94 DRACO CANES VENATICI M64 M87 M3 COMA BERENICES CRATER M92 CORONA BOREALIS HERCULES M13 BOOTES Arcturus Spica M104 CORVUS M5 VIRGO M83 SERPENS CAPUT OPHIUCHUS LIBRA Galactic North ( 0h,+90d lim: 5.0) double variable Planet Asteroid Comet Cluster Globular Open Nebula Planetary Diffuse Galaxy Elliptical Spiral Unknown Other Quasar

3 +55d DRACO CORONA BOREALIS M13 HERCULES M92 M5 SERPENS CAPUT VIRGO Spica M83 M104 CORVUS CRATER +45d +35d +25d Vega OPHIUCHUS LIBRA M57 Antares +15d Deneb CYGNUS LYRA SAGITTA M27 VULPECULA DELPHINUS M15 EQUULEUS Altair M11 AQUILA SERPENS CAUDA SCUTUM M17 M22 M20 M8 SAGITTARIUS M6 M7 SCORPIUS CORONA AUSTRALIS TELESCOPIUM CENTAURUS LUPUS VELA Becrux Agena Rigel KentaurusCRUX NORMA CIRCINUS MUSCA TRIANGULUM AUSTRALE CARINA ARA CHAMAELEON VOLANS APUS OCTANS MENSA +05d -05d -15d -25d PEGASUS M2 CAPRICORNUS MICROSCOPIUM INDUS PAVO HYDRUS RETICULUM -35d -45d TUCANA HOROLOGIUM GRUS ERIDANUS Achernar d Summer - Galactic Center: 0h, lim: 5.0

4 d -45d -35d -25d -15d -05d +05d +15d +25d +35d +45d +55d PISCES ANDROMEDA CASSIOPEIA TRIANGULUM ARIES PERSEUS TAURUS CAMELOPARDALIS AURIGA GEMINI LYNX URSA MAJOR URSA MINOR CORONA BOREALIS DRACO HERCULES LYRA SAGITTA VULPECULA CYGNUS DELPHINUS EQUULEUS CEPHEUS PEGASUS LACERTA Vega Capella Betelgeuse Altair Aldebaran Pollux Deneb M31 M33 DblClust M34 M77 Pleiades M38 M36 M37 M35 M44 M81/82 M101 M13 M92 M57 M27 M15 M2 M52 Autumn - Cassiopeia,...: 8h, lim: 5.0

5 d -45d -35d -25d -15d -05d +05d +15d +25d +35d +45d +55d TUCANA HYDRUS ERIDANUS ARIES HOROLOGIUM PERSEUS RETICULUM TAURUS CAELUM DORADO MENSA ORION LEPUS COLUMBA AURIGA PICTOR GEMINI MONOCEROS CANIS MAJOR PUPPIS CANIS MINOR VOLANS LYNX CANCER HYDRA PYXIS LEO OCTANS ANTLIA SEXTANS CARINA VELA CRATER URSA MAJOR CHAMAELEON VIRGO CORVUS CRUX CENTAURUS MUSCA CIRCINUS LUPUS TRIANGULUM AUSTRALE APUS PAVO Sirius Canopus Rigel Kentaurus Capella Rigel Procyon Achernar Betelgeuse Agena Aldebaran Spica Pollux Becrux Regulus Adara M77 Pleiades M38 M42 M36 M37 M35 M41 M47 M44 M67 M104 M83 Winter - Southern Hemisphere: 16h, lim: 5.0

6 SAGITTARIUS CORONA AUSTRALIS TELESCOPIUM MICROSCOPIUM APUS DELPHINUS CAPRICORNUS INDUS PAVO EQUULEUS M2 OCTANS M15 Fomalhaut AQUARIUS PISCIS AUSTRINUS GRUS TUCANA HYDRUS MENSA VOLANS PEGASUS SCULPTOR PHOENIX Achernar RETICULUM ERIDANUS HOROLOGIUM DORADO PISCES CETUS FORNAX CAELUM PICTOR Canopus COLUMBA ANDROMEDA M31 M77 M33 ARIES LEPUS TRIANGULUM TAURUS Rigel ORION PERSEUS Pleiades Aldebaran Galactic South ( 0h,-90d lim: 5.0) double variable Planet Asteroid Comet Cluster Globular Open Nebula Planetary Diffuse Galaxy Elliptical Spiral Unknown Other Quasar

Feb 20 6 h 30º M36 M38 M37 AURIGA 40º. Capella. b q 50º CAMELOPARDALIS 60º 70º 80º. a Polaris 80º 80º MINOR URSA 80º 70º. q 60º. Rastaban.

Feb 20 6 h 30º M36 M38 M37 AURIGA 40º. Capella. b q 50º CAMELOPARDALIS 60º 70º 80º. a Polaris 80º 80º MINOR URSA 80º 70º. q 60º. Rastaban. G N G C O C V B S Nv 20 0 ANDROMEDA M TRIANGULUM LACERTA A M76 M103 S C PERSEUS Mf M52 CASSIOPEIA 7 CEPHEUS A 7 CAMELOPARDALIS P M37 8 C AURIGA M40 M M M A M108 M97 E F 20 6 8 7 7 8 URSA MINOR 8-2 -1 0